Mail-bag catcher and deliverer.



A. A. HERTHER.

MAIL BAG GATGHBB AND DELIVERER.

APPLICATION FILED 111:0 so, 1912.

1,093,624; Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

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ATTORNEY A. A. HERTHBR.

MAIL BAG GATGHBR AND DELIVERER.

APPLICATION FILED mo. 30, 1912.

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' ran STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUST A. HERTHER, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

MAIL-BAG CATCI-IER AND DELIVERER.

To all whom it may concern 7 Be it known that LAUGUST A. Hnn'rrrnn, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Indianapolis, county ofMarion, and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and usefulMail-Bag Catcher and Deliverer; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in which like letters refer tolike parts.

The object of this invention is to improve a construction of mail bagcatching and delivering apparatus so that the mail will operate reliablyand accurately and without injury to the difierent parts of theapparatus or the mail. bag and the mail in the bag.

One feature of the invention consists in providing guiding means inconnection with arms on a car and the sides of the railway, which carrythe bag holding means arranged so that the two sets of arms or bagholding means will maintain the proper vertical relation to each otherso that the bag will be properly caught or delivered. And for apparatusof the sort intended to deliver one bag while another is receiving,there are provided two arms extending from the car and two from a postbeside the railway, each arm carrying proper bag holding means, andguides on one set of said arms and cushions on the other for engagingeach other, whereby the pair of arms extending from the car will alwayspass between the pair of arms extending from the post and avoidcollision between the parts and cause also a proper vertical relationbetween the bag holding devices.

The nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanyingdrawings and the following description and claims:

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a railway mail car withone end broken away and also of a mail bag receiving and delivering postbeside the railway, the parts being shown in their position justprevious to the delivery and receipt of some bags. Fig. 2 is the samejust after the receipt and delivery of mail bags. Fig. 3 is a verticaltransverse section through the car, and the side elevation of theapparatus on the car and beside the railway at the time of the receiptand delivery of the bags, a portion of the car being broken away. Fig.4: is a plan View of Fi 1. Fig. 5 is a side elevation on an enlargedscale of a portion of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 30, 1912.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

Serial No. 739,298.

what is shown in Fig. 3 with the mail bag delivered and other partsbroken away. Fig. 6 is a section on the line 66 of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is aperspective view of a pair of the bag catching and delivering fingers.

In the drawings a railway 10 is shown with'a mail car 11 travelingthereon and beside the railway there is a post 12 with an apparatusthereon for the receipt and delivery of mail bags 14 and 15 and in thecar there is a post 13 for the receipt and delivery of mail bags.

The apparatus in the mail car will be first described.

The post 13 is mounted in and near the door 16 of the mail car so as tobe oscillatory. There is a mail delivery arm 17, a mail receiving arm 18and a mail bag holding arm 19 secured to the post 13 and when desired tobe used, the post is turned sothat these arms will project outwardly asin Fig. 3, but at other times the arms are turned around in the caragainst the side wall and out of the way as much as possible. Thesearinsare rigid, although the arms 17 and 18 are made up of a plurality ofpieces, as shown in Fig. 5, but not necessarily so, and the arms 17 and18 extend out forequal distances and they are supplemented by bars 20and 21 which are loosely mounted on a pair of parallel vertical rods 22secured in the outer ends of the arms 17 and 18 and the bar 20 is helddown and the bar 21 is held up by spiral springs 23 and 2 1- whichsurrounds the rods 22 and, therefore, there are two pairs of springs 23and two pairs of springs 24 separated by a block 25 slidable on saidrods and whereby the springs are equalized. The block 25 is also usedfor holding the arms 17 and 18 in their outer positions, as a brace 26is pivoted to said block 25 and its inner end is downwardly turned so asto be insertible in a pocket 27 secured to the side of the car. When theapparatus is turned around in the car and not in use, the brace 26 hangsdown idle, but when the apparatus is turned around in the positionsshown in Figs. 1 and 2, the lower end of the brace is inserted in thepocket 27. Therefore, the bars 20 and 21 are parallel and opposite eachother exactly and are spring held in place on the rods 22. The upper bar21 has a pair of spring bag catching fingers 30 which projectforwardlyso as to catch a bag on the post The bar 20 below has a pair ofspring bag delivering fingers 31 projecting rearwardly and under the bar20 and on top of bar 21 there are cushions 32. This consti tutes theconstruction of the apparatus on the car and the details of the pairs ofbag holding and receiving fingers will be hereafter explained.

The post 12 has arms and 36 parallel and projecting toward the railway.They are the same length and are braced by braces 37. The lower arm 35has, as seen in Fig. 1, a pair of spring bag catching fingers 38extending in one direction parallel with the railway, and the upper arm36 has asimilar pairof bag delivering fingers 39 projecting in theopposite direction from the fingers 38. The spring fingers 38 and 39 aresimilar to the spring fingers 30 and 31 and each consists of a pair ofspring bars secured fixedly at their inner ends, as shown in Fig. 4, andthen bowed outwardly so as to make a grasping or bag holding portion andthen they are flared or spread outwardly to make receiving fingers. Abag entering between the fingers will be moved to the throat thereofwhere they are contracted and the momentum of the bag will force the bagbetweenthe spring fingers into the oval recess and bag holding portionof the fingers. These fingers are just the same for bag deliverers asthey are for bag receivers, because they permit the bag to be readilydrawn out of the spring fingers as well as delivered to the same.

The lateral flare of the spring fingers 33 enable them to catch the bagsor deliver the bags with reliability although the bags might not meetthe pair of fingers centrally. It is more important, however, that thesefingers catch the bag at the right point on the bag, and the registry ofparts to accomplish this action is caused by the bevel bars 40 and 41.These bars extend parallel with the railway track and are secured to theunderside andthe upper side, respectively, of the two arms 36 and 35 andthey are formed of boards a few feet long and the lower corners at theends are beveled or curved so that as the car passes the pair of bars 30and 31 on the arms 17 and 18 and the cushions 32 on the bars 20 and 21,will pass between the two bars 40 and 11, and by reason of said bars 10and 41 having theirends beveled, this action will take place whether thearms extending from the car are exactly at the right elevation or not.In other words, this arrangement of the bars 40 and 4:1 permits themechanism on the car to pass between them regardless of the rocking ofthe car or ordinary variations in movement or in the workmanship of theparts. Anclwhen the bars 20 and 21 from the car pass between the bars 10and 41, a limited relationship vertically will be established betweenthe bag holding fingers,

so that the bags will be caught at substan tially the right point on thebags so as not to injure the contents and to cause the bag to be heldwhen it is caught. In the drawings herein the parts are arranged tocatch the bags when near their upper ends, but they might be arranged tocatch the bag in the middle when the middle is contracted, as is oftenthe case. In any event, the parts just described will maintain theproper relationship of the coiiperating pairs of receiving anddelivering fingers or bag holders, so as to cause the apparatus to workwith accuracy and success and prevent collision between the bars 20 and21 and arms and 36.

In Fig. 1 the car is approaching the post beside the railway and the carapparatus has a bag let on the pair of fingers 31 in position fordelivery. The post has a bag 15 on the fingers 39 in position to bereceived. As the car advances. the fingers 30 on the car apparatus willpick up the bag held by the fingers 30 on the post, and the fingers 38on the post will catch the bag on the fingers 39 of the car apparatus,as shown in Fig. 2. Then the brace 26 at the side of the car is releasedand the car apparatus is turned into the car and the bag removed. It maybe noted that the means for receiving the bags are always locatedslightly below the means for delivering the bags, but as the momentum ofthe lower part of the bag is slightly greater than that of the upperpart of the bag, as shown, the bag enters the receiving fingersobliquely so that by the time it gets into the inner and holding partthereof, the receiving fingers will be holding the bag at about the samepoint thereof at which the delivering lingers had held the bag.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mail bag delivering and catching apparatus including a mail bagcatching and delivering device on a car, a mail bag catching anddelivering device mounted beside the railway in position to cooperatewith the means on the car, a guide board on the bag catching anddelivering means beside. the railway and extending parallel with therailway, the ends of said guide board being beveled, and a cushion onthe bag catching and delivering means on the car in position to engagesaid guide board as the car passes.

52. A mail bag delivering and catching apparatus including a mail bagcatching and delivering device on a car, a mail bag catching anddelivering device mounted beside the railway in position to cooperatewith the means on the car, a guide board on the bag catching anddelivering means beside the railway and extending parallel with therailway, the ends of said guide board being beveled, a cushion on thebag catching and delivering means on the car in position to engage saidguide board as the car passes, and means for mounting the bag catchingand delivering means on the car so that they will yield vertically.

8. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a plurality ofbag holding and catching means on a car, a plurality of bag holding andcatching means mounted beside the railway and between which said meanson the car are adapted to pass, a guide board on the upper side of oneof said bag catching and delivering means beside the railway, a similarguideway on the underside of the other bag catching and delivering meansbeside the railway, a cushion on each of the bag catching and deliveringmeans from the car in position to engage said guide boards, and meansfor rendering the bag catching and delivering means on the carvertically yieldable.

45. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair ofvertical yieldable bars mounted in connection with a railway car, one ofsaid bars being above the other, bag catching and holding meansprojecting laterally from one of said bars in one direction, a bagcatching and holding means projecting laterally from the other one ofsaid bars in the opposite direction, a pair of arms mounted beside therailway and be tween which said bars are adapted to pass, bag catchingand holding means on each of said arms which extend in directionsopposite to the corresponding bag catching and delivering means mountedon the car, and means for controlling the vertical relationship of thecooperating bag catching and holding means.

5. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair ofvertical yieldable bars mounted in connection with a railway car, one ofsaid bars being above the other, bag catching and holding meansprojecting laterally from one of said bars in one direction, a bagcatching and holding means projecting laterally from the other one ofsaid bars in the opposite direction, a pair of arms mounted beside therailway and between which said bars are adapted to pass, bag catchingand holding means on each of said arms which extend in directionsopposite to the corresponding bag catching and delivering means mountedon the car, cushions on said bars, and guide boards on said arms andparallel with the railway and in position to be engaged by said cushionsas the car passes. I

6. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of armsadapted to project from a railway car, one above the other, a pair ofvertical rods secured to the outer ends of said arms, a bar looselymounted on the lower portion of said rods, another bar loosely mountedon the upper portion of said rods, springs on said rods pressing againstsaid bars, oppositely extending means on said bars for catching andholding the bags, cushions on said bars, a pair of arms mounted besidethe railway between which said arms may pass, means on said arms forcatching and holding bags which project in directions opposite to thecorre' sponding bag catching and holding means on said bars, and guideboards on said arms adapted to be engaged by said cushions, whereby thebars will be spring held in place and yieldably mounted.

7. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of armsadapted to project from a railway car, one above the other, a pair ofvertical rods secured to the outer ends of said arms, a bar looselymounted on the lower portion of said rods, another bar loosely mountedon the upper portion of said rods, a sliding block on said rods, springson said rods both above and below said sliding block for holding saidarms in position, a brace connected with said block for bracing thedevice to the side of the car, oppositely extending means on said barsfor catching and holding bags, cushions on said bars, a pair of armsmounted beside the railway between which said arms may pass, means onsaid arms for catching and holding bags which project in directionsopposite to the corresponding bag catching and holding means on saidbars, and guide boards on said arms adapted to be engaged by saidcushions, whereby the bars will be spring held in place and yieldablymounted.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto atfixed my signature in the presenceof the witnesses herein named.

AUGUST A. HE'RTHER.

Witnesses O. M. MCLAUGHLIN, V. H. LOOKWOOD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

